British Columbia Liberal Party
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Template:Infobox Canada Political Party The British Columbia Liberal Party (usually referred to as the BC Liberals) is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party is a coalition of centrists and neoliberals, united in their opposition to the New Democratic Party (NDP), and in favour of bringing more free market reforms to the province. Many of its policies are fiscally conservative and socially liberal (neoliberalism), although some supporters hold socially conservative positions. The party is not formally linked its federal counterpart, the Liberal Party of Canada.
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History
Early years
From 1871 to 1903, British Columbia operated with a non partisan government. Party politics were only introduced in 1903 election with the formation of the British Columbia Conservative Party. The Conservatives ruled the province until the Liberals were able to win the election of 1916 and form a government under Harlan Carey Brewster.
In the years between the First and Second World Wars, the Liberals were BC's dominant party, in office for most of this time. The most colourful of the BC Liberal premiers was Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, who was premier from 1933 to 1941. He advocated the annexation of Yukon by BC, and the construction of the Alaska highway.
This two-party system was challenged with the rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in western Canada in the 1940s, and its successor, the New Democratic Party (NDP).
The CCF first took power in Saskatchewan under Premier Tommy Douglas, and made major inroads in British Columbia. In order to block the rise of the socialist CCF, the Liberals and Conservatives formed a coalition government in 1941 when neither party had enough seats to form a majority government on its own.
John Hart was the Liberal leader and premier from 1941 to 1947. He became leader after Patullo refused to go into coalition with the Conservatives.
Hart was followed by Byron Ingemar Johnson, who served as premier until tensions arose in the coalition due to the dominance of Liberals. The coalition collapsed in 1951 when the Conservatives withdrew from the coalition. The Liberals held onto a minority government until 1952.
The 1952 election
In order to prevent the British Columbia CCF from winning in a three party competition, the government introduced instant-runoff voting, with the expectation that Conservative voters would list the Liberals as their second choice and vice versa.
What they had not counted on was what voters were tired of both the Liberals and the Tories, and were looking for alternatives. More voters chose BC Social Credit League ahead of any other party as their second choice. Social Credit emerged as the largest party when the ballots were counted in the 1952 general election. Social Credit's de facto leader during the election, W.A.C. Bennett, was formally named party leader after the election.
At the June 9 1953 general election, the Liberals were reduced to 4 seats, taking 23.36% of the vote. Arthur Laing defeated Tilly Rollston in Vancouver Point Grey. Even though Social Credit won a majority of seats in the legislature, their finance minister Einar Gunnarson was defeated in Oak Bay by Archie Gibbs of the Liberals. Gordon Gibson Sr, nicknamed the "Bull Moose of the Woods", was elected for Lillooet as a Liberal.
In the wilderness: 1953–1990
During the early period of this time, the Liberals' most prominent member was Gordon Gibson Sr. He was a cigar smoking gregarious logging contractor who could have been premier but for major political error. He was elected in 1953 for the Lillooet riding. In 1955, the Sommers scandal surfaced and he was the only leader in the legislature to make an issue of it. W.A.C. Bennett and his attorney general tried many dirty tricks to stop the information from coming out.
In frustration, Gordon Gibson Sr. resigned his seat and forced a by-election, hoping to make the Sommers scandal the issue. Unfortunately, the voting system had changed, and he came a close second after Social Credit.
In the 1956 election, with the Sommers scandal still not resolved, the Liberals fared worse than in 1953. Arthur Laing lost his seat, and the party was reduced to two MLAs and 20.9% of the vote.
In the 1960 election, the party won four seats with the same 20.9% of the popular vote as in 1956.
In the 1963 election, the party's caucus increased by one more MLA to five, but their share of the popular vote fell to 19.98%.
The 1966 election, the party won another seat, bringing its caucus to six, and had a modest increase in the vote to 20.24%.
In the 1969 vote, the party lost one seat, and its share of the vote fell to 19.03%.
In 1972, the party was led into the election by a new leader, David Anderson, who had been elected in the 1968 federal election as a federal Liberal MP. He and four others managed to be elected to the legislature, but with the lowest vote in party history at 16.4%.
After the NDP won the 1972 election, many supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties united under the umbrella of Social Credit. This coalition was able to keep the NDP out of power from 1975 until the 1990s. MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat Mcgeer and Allan Williams left the Liberals for Social Credit along with Hugh Curtis of the suddenly rejuventated Tories. All of them became members of Social Credit Cabinets after 1975.
In the 1975 election, the only Liberal to be elected was Gordon Gibson as the party scored a dismal 7.24%. David Anderson was badly defeated in his Victoria riding, placing behind the NDP and Social Credit.
The 1979 election was the party's lowest point. For the first time in party history, it was shut out of the legislature. Only five candidates ran, none were elected, and the party got 0.5% of the vote.
The 1983 election saw a small recovery as the party came close to a full slate of candidates, but won a dismal 2.69% of the vote.
The 1986 vote was the third and last election in which the party was shut out. Its share of the popular vote improved to 6.74%.
Rebirth under Wilson: 1991–1993
The ruling Social Credit party was beset by scandal in the late 1980s under the leadership of William Vander Zalm, who also took the party in a socially conservative direction. Vander Zalm was forced to resign due to a conflict of interest scandal. As a result, multiple scandals had left many non-left voters looking for another option.
At this time, Gordon Wilson was the leader of the BC Liberal Party, and although his party had been low in the polls, he lobbied to be included in the televised CBC debate between Vander Zalm's successor, Premier Rita Johnston and NDP Leader Michael Harcourt. The CBC eventually agreed, and Wilson impressed many with his performance. The Liberal campaign suddenly gained tremendous momentum, and syphoned off a lot of support from the Socred campaign. In the end, while the NDP won the election, the Liberals came in second with 17 seats. The Liberals were back, and Wilson became Leader of the Opposition.
Before the 1991 election, Wilson engineered to sever the formal link between the federal and provincial parties, though he personally supported the federal Liberals. For the provincial liberals, the intent of this separation was to reduce the influence on the provincial Liberals by former Socreds. From the federal Liberal perspective, this move was equally beneficial to them, because the provincial party was heavily in debt. This separation may have facilitated a later shift to the right by the party. However, Wilson's centre-left policies did not coincide with many other Liberals both in the legislature and behind the scenes that wanted to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of Social Credit. Wilson was further damaged by his affair with fellow Liberal MLA Judi Tyabji, particularly within the party.
By 1993, the caucus was in open revolt against his leadership. To save the party, a leadership race was announced and Gordon Wilson ran against former party leader Gordon Gibson and Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell for the leadership. Campbell won, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly in a 1994 by-election. Wilson and Tyabji left the Liberals and formed their own party, the Progressive Democratic Alliance. That party fought one election (in which Wilson was the only successful candidate) before he accepted a cabinet position in the NDP government.
Campbell Leadership: 1994-2001
Under Campbell's leadership, and the influx of supporters of the federal Canadian Alliance and former Socreds, the BC Liberals moved to the centre-right. Supporters of the federal Liberals remained in the party and are still the majority of the party.
The Liberals won the popular vote but won less seats than the NDP in the 1996 election. This loss was generally seen to be as a result of the Liberals losing numerous marginal contests, while piling up large victories in fewer seats. In rural British Columbia, the Liberals lost several marginal seats because of discomfort that the electorate had with some of Campbell's free-market policies, such as a promise to sell BC Rail.
The Campbell Government: 2001 to Present–
After a scandal-filled second term for the NDP government, the Liberals won the 2001 election with the biggest landslide in BC history: 77 of 79 seats. Gordon Campbell became the seventh premier in ten years, and the first Liberal premier in almost 50 years.
In accomplishing his victory, Campbell jettisoned some of the less popular planks in his 1996 platform. Some of them were later reintroduced, such as the privatization of BC Rail in a complex transaction. However, Campbell followed through with his most significant commitment to lower taxes for taxpayers, introducing a 25% cut in all provincial income taxes on the first day he was installed to office. (Some other taxes and fees were later raised, which reduced the overall benefit of the original tax cut for some taxpayers.) Campbell's first term was also noted for business-friendly policies, fiscal austerity and several significant labour disputes, some of which settled through government legislation.
Bouyed by a resurgent economy, the Liberals were re-elected in 2005 with a reduced majority, and Campbell became the first premier to win a second term in 22 years.
Party leaders
- James Alexander MacDonald (1903-1912)
- Harlan Carey Brewster (1912]-March 1, 1918)
- John Oliver (March 1, 1918-August 17, 1927)
- John Duncan MacLean (August 17, 1927-1928])
- Thomas Dufferin Pattullo (1928]-December 9, 1941)
- John Hart (December 9, 1941-December 29, 1947)
- Byron Ingemar Johnson (December 29, 1947-1952)
- Edward T. Kenney (interim) (1952-1953)
- Arthur Laing (1953-1959)
- Ray Perrault (1959-1968])
- Pat McGeer (1968]-May 22, 1972)
- David Anderson (May 22, 1972-September 28, 1975)
- Gordon Gibson (September 28, 1975-February 19, 1979)
- Jev Tothill (February 19, 1979-May 25, 1981)
- Shirley McLoughlin (May 25, 1981-March 31, 1984)
- Art Lee (March 31, 1984-1987)
- Gordon Wilson (October 30, 1987-September 11, 1993)
- Gordon Campbell (September 11, 1993-)
Election results
| Election | Party leader | # of candidates | Seats | Popular vote | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elected | % Change | First count | % | Change | Final count | % | |||
| 1903 (1) | J. A. MacDonald | 39 | 17 | 22,715 | 37.78% | ||||
| 1907 | J.A. MacDonald | 40 | 13 | -23.5% | 234,816 | 37.15% | -0.63% | ||
| 1909(2) | J.A. MacDonald | 36 | 2 | -84.6% | 33,675 | 33.21% | -3.94% | ||
| 1912 | H.C. Brewster | 19 | 0 | -100% | 21,443 | 25.37% | -7.84% | ||
| 1916 (3) | H.C. Brewster | 45 | 36 | - | 89,892 | 50.00% | +24.63% | ||
| 1920 (4) | John Oliver | 45 | 25 | -30.6% | 134,167 | 37.89% | -12.11% | ||
| 1924 | John Oliver | 46 | 23 | -8.0% | 108,323 | 31.34% | -6.55% | ||
| 1928 | J.D. MacLean | 45 | 12 | -47.8% | 144,872 | 40.04% | +8.70% | ||
| 1933 | T.D. Pattullo | 47 | 34 | +183.3% | 159,131 | 41.74% | +1.70% | ||
| 1937 | T.D. Pattullo | 48 | 31 | -8.8% | 156,074 | 37.34% | -4.40% | ||
| 1941 (5) | T.D. Pattullo | 48 | 21 | -32.3% | 149,525 | 32.94% | -4.40% | ||
| 1945 Coalition (6) | John Hart | 47 | 37 | +12.1% | 261,147 | 55.83 | -8.02% | ||
| 1949 Coalition (6) | John Hart | 48 | 39 | +5.4% | 428,773 | 61.35% | +5.52% | ||
| 1952 (7) | B.I. Johnson | 48 | 6 | n.a. | 180,289 | 23.46% | n.a. | 170,674 | 25.26% |
| 1953 (7) | Arthur Laing | 48 | 4 | -33.3% | 171,671 | 23.59% | +0.13% | 154,090 | 23.36% |
| 1956 | Arthur Laing | 52 | 2 | -50.0% | 177,922 | 21.77% | -1.82% | ||
| 1960 | Ray Perrault | 50 | 4 | +100 | 208,249 | 20.90% | -0.87% | ||
| 1963 | Ray Perrault | 51 | 5 | +25.0% | 193,363 | 19.98% | -0.92% | ||
| 1966 | Ray Perrault | 53 | 6 | +20.0% | 152,155 | 20.24% | +0.26% | ||
| 1969 | Pat McGeer | 55 | 5 | -16.7% | 186,235 | 19.03% | -1.21% | ||
| 1972 | Pat McGeer | 53 | 5 | - | 185,640 | 16.40% | -2.63% | ||
| 1975 | Gordon Gibson | 49 | 1 | -80.0% | 93,379 | 7.24% | -9.16% | ||
| 1979 | Jev Tothill | 5 | 0 | -100% | 6,662 | 0.47% | -6.77% | ||
| 1983 | Shirley McLoughlin | 52 | 0 | - | 44,442 | 2.69% | 2.22% | ||
| 1986 | Art Lee | 55 | 0 | - | 130,505 | 6.74% | +4.05% | ||
| 1991 | Gordon Wilson | 71 | 17 | 486,208 | 33.25% | +26.51% | |||
| 1996 | Gordon Campbell | 75 | 33 | +94.1% | 661,929 | 41.82% | +8.58% | ||
| 2001 | Gordon Campbell | 79 | 77 | +133.3% | 916,888 | 57.62% | +15.80% | ||
| 2005 | Gordon Campbell | 79 | 46 | -40.3% | 772,945 | 46.08% | -11.54% | ||
| Sources: Elections BC | |||||||||
Notes:
(1) The Liberal Party elected one candidate by acclamation.
(2) One candidate is counted twice: J. Oliver (Liberal) contested but was defeated in both Delta and Victoria City.
(3) One candidate, H.C. Brewster (Liberal) who contested and was elected in both Alberni and Victoria City, is counted twice.
(4) One member elected by acclamation. One candidate, J. Oliver, who contested and was elected in both Delta and Victoria City is counted twice.
(5) After the election, a Coalition government was formed by the Conservative and Liberal members. T.D. Patullo, Liberal leader, objected, stepped down, and sat as a Liberal, giving the Coalition 32 seats.
(6) In the 1945 and 1949 elections, the Liberal Party ran in coalition with the Conservative Party. Results compared to Liberal + Conservative total from previous election.
(7) The 1952 and 1953 elections used the alternative voting system. Rather than marking the ballot with an X, numbers were to be placed opposite the names in order of choice. If, after the first count, no candidate received an absolute simple majority, the candidate with the least number of votes was dropped, and the second choices distributed among the remaining candidates. This process continued until a candidate emerged with the requisite majority vote. Some voters only indicated a first choice (plumping), and others did not utilize the full range available. Consequently as the counts progressed, some ballots would be exhausted and total valid votes would decline, thereby reducing the absolute majority required to be elected. In multi-member ridings, there were as many ballots as members to be elected, distinguished by colour and letters.
See also
- List of British Columbia political parties
- List of British Columbia premiers
- List of British Columbia general elections
- British Columbia Liberal Party leadership conventions